First Baseball Game

Is there any past-time quite as quintessentially American as baseball?

Today was Josiah's first baseball game. Well, technically, it is teeball, but in a couple of years he will graduate to full-fledged baseball. His first game was meant to be last Saturday morning, but we got rained out. Today was gorgeous, a nice hot sun with a good cool breeze.

Both teams batted twice. I wish I could say for sure that this is two innings, but I'm not certain. I used to think I knew what an inning was, but I seem to recall a conversation with someone in which my ideas of baseball were corrected. Peder? What constitutes an inning?

Josiah did well...he has a tendency to goof off a little bit in these situations. He has inherited this tendency from his mother, I will freely admit. I had problems standing still, listening, controlling myself, paying attention....

What was I saying? I got distracted there.

Anyway, Josiah likes to goof off a little. You know, stuff like horsing around, putting his glove on his head and catching with his hat. I've had to deliver a couple of stern lectures lately about calming down, paying attention and listening to coach. He did pretty good today. I only had to give him the motherly glare once when he did the glove/hat switcheroo. He batted well, caught a fielder and threw it and made two home runs.

The only thing missing was the concession stand. Man, we used to go watch my Uncle Paul play fast-pitch softball (correct me if I'm wrong on any of this Dad) in Odin years ago. The thing that I remember most was the concession stand--serving not only the standard popcorn and candy but also homemade goodies from all the Lutheran ladies in the area. Bars...oh yeah. I miss the bars. Also, the playground and the ponies that lived on the farm that adjoined the field. I had myself some serious pony-lust in those days. Those were good times.

I think that my Uncle Paul was also number 4, come to think of it! Does anyone recall?